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Daytime temperature fluctuations greatly alter the incubation period of malaria parasites in mosquitoes and alter transmission rates of the disease. Consideration of these fluctuations reveals a more accurate picture of climate change’s impact on malaria. Most studies use average monthly temperatures to study the impact of climate change on the global malaria burden,” says Matthew Thomas, professor of entomology, Penn State. “But mosquitoes and the malaria parasites developing within them do not experience average temperatures; they are exposed to temperatures that fluctuate throughout the day.”